On
Friday May 23rd 2003 relatives,friends and supporters of Tim Caines,
a Birmingham man serving life for the 1994 murder of local solicitor
Colin Hickman, launched a campaign to overturn his wrongful conviction.
Tim Caines was convicted on May 24th 1995.

Campaign
Launch was attended by

Dawn Caines, Tim's sister and campaign spokesperson.
Dr. Lynne Jones MP, a longstanding supporter of Tim Caines.
Johnny Slaney, father of Warren Slaney who has an application at
the CCRC
Tony Powell, a very close friend of Tim's and member of Freedom
For Tim Caines.

Following
the Campaign launch a second application was presented at the CCRC
offices at Alpha Tower by Dawn Caines and Lynne Jones MP.

On 1 March
1994, a Coventry solicitor was murdered in his home. There was no
witnesses to the fatal attack but his common-law-wife did witness
the assailant running from the scene.
She described him as six foot
plus with blonde hair and white. Tim is around five foot ten, with
black hair and black skinned.
The Victim was known to Tim
as a business associate and -a friend. Tim admits he was at the
house just before the attack as he had been led there by a gunman
who was interested in the victims business dealings. The men that
led Tim to the house were unknown to him, and says that if he did
know them he would have no problems with giving their names to the
police.
Initially Tim did lie to the
police about his association with the victim. This was to both protect
himself and also the reputation of Colin Hickman (the victim).
As a financial adviser, Tim
helped his clients with investments and not all of them were declared
for tax. He fully accepts that this was illegal practice and were
charges of tax evasion brought against him he would plead guilty.
The dead man was also heavily involved in these dealings and this
was the reason for Tim not telling the truth. He did not want to
discredit a dead man who was also his friend.
Tim's case is very complex and to
try to condense it to fit into this limited space would not be possible
and would not benefit Tim and his fight for the truth about what
happened on the night of 1st March 1994, to clear his name and to
ultimately bring the killer(s) of Colin Hickman to justice.

J

Jury: "A group of twelve people chosen to render
a verdict on the basis of evidence submitted to them in a court of
law". In Tim's case the jury was reduced to ten, and he was then
convicted by a majority of nine. One juror was dismissed after it
was discovered (by Tim) that they were a neighbour of the dock officer
and they were passing notes to each other during the trial.

U

Unfounded "Having no foundation": In Tim's case there
was no forensic evidence against him. The victim was stabbed repeatedly
and the injury that killed him was to the carotid artery, this injury
would have caused the blood to spurt for a considerable distance,
and therefore covering the assailant in blood. This was not the case
with Tim's clothing. Also the knife that was supposed to be the murder
weapon was found the next day "as if placed" in a nearby
drive way. It was described as being weathered, but how could this
be when it was only supposed to have been used the day before? At
trial it was admitted that is was not necessarily the murder weapon.

S

Scapegoat: "A person bearing the blame for others". Tim
has been blamed for the killing of Colin Hickman. He is convicted
of the actions of others. He was told by the police that they knew
he didn't commit the crime, but he would do as it was "another
black off the streets". We all know of the racism in our police
force.

T

Travesty: "A grotesque misrepresentation of something that
is an account of the real thing". As- Tim had admitted being
present at the house before the attack the police used this to tie
him in with the murder. Tim admitted lying initially to protect both
himself and the victim, who was a friend.

I

Innocent: "Free from wrong, not guilty of a crime". Tim
is innocent of the murder of Colin Hickman.

C

Catastrophe: "A sudden terrible event that causes suffering`.
As in all cases of murder, there are many who suffer. Tim is in contact
with the victims wife, who fully supports him as she is absolutely
positive that it was not Tim who she saw fleeing from her house after
killing her partner. (She is the only eyewitness). Tim is painfully
aware of her suffering and part of his fight for justice is to establish
who did kill the victim.

E

Evidence: "Available facts and circumstances that indicate
whether a thing is true or valid". There is no hard evidence
to supports Tim's conviction for the murder of Colin Hickman. There
is evidence to say that the crime that took place was vastly different
to how it was presented in court. The crowns case was that Tim killed
Colin with an unknown other. Tim was supposed to have restrained the
victim from behind whilst he was stabbed. There is nothing that supports
this theory. A set of unidentified footprints were found in the blood
at the scene. Who do these belong to